H3G direct debit scam

AlexMac

I'm bumping this topic up, because although there were many threads here prior to 2013 about erroneous (or fraudulent?) Direct Debit payments appearing on the bank statements of people who had no H3G phones or broadband accounts, these all now seem closed.

So- a warning! 3 monthly payments; an 'initial' one of £35, plus two more of £15 and £10 popped in the past quarter's bank statements of our small residents association. We don't have an account with H3G (who some people assert are linked to the broadband provider 'Three' ). Our localBank seemed not to know about the Direct Debit Guarantee (!) but they are now on the case and I hope we'll get our £60 back.

So watch out, as there are hundreds of warnings on the web if you search topics like ' Three ' or ' H3G ' and ' Direct debits ' and this is obviously a really common problem.

If I'm going to be charitable, I could speculate that as it's easy to get hold of account numbers and sort-codes, this might be a case of lots of individual small fraudsters trying to swing a free mobile or internet service by others' bank detail... But I'm more paranoid than that!

ChiefGrasscutter

I'm surprised they could set up a DD given that I presume all instructions to the bank on such community type accounts/mandates are almost always set up to be countersigned by two people.

kingrulzuk

o dear i check my bank account all the time